The House of Blue

Did Petrino fire Cassity?

You do know that all three of the above mentioned coaches have coached under Petrino before? Summers was even at Arkansas with him.

I agree. Summers is regarded as one of the best in the business.

If BP was to become the HC here I agree that Summers and Nord likely remain on the staff. Cassity could stay but that one is more iffy.

Petrino's name and brand would automatically bring in higher level recruits. The guy is an ass but he knows how to coach a football team. He would keep Summers no doubt but would probably ditch everyone else as he should.

Pipe dream, it's not going to happen anyhow.

Let me start by saying i want Bobby P and pray we get him.

My ? Is if you have a son would u want him to play for Bobby?

Why not?

I want to hear from my kid that the team is successful, fully disciplined, got a great education and that there's a good chance to get drafted in the NFL.

The coach cheated on his wife 5 years ago? ... Meh, so did the President, the local pastor, the pharmacist, the old lesbian librarian, and the butcher.

I wouldn't care who Petrino keeps or doesn't. The man wins games. I'm confident that whoever he has on staff that we will win bigger than we've ever seen at UK.

He was at UL for 4 and UA for 4. He would still be at UA if not for his ponce activity in his personal life. Even if he comes for 2 yrs and gets us recognition for a few yrs.....gets us winning well and gets us some recruits.....it could be worth it.

He's not my first choice and I think he comes with a lot of risk.....possibly more than just off the field issues......but the man can coach. As far as ability he far outweighs all other options out there.

Why does everyone think Petrino will leave for a better job? He's obviously not going back to the NFL anytime soon. He has jumped around a lot, but except for leaving Atlanta for Arkansas each stop has been a step up. I think getting Petrino to take the job would be tougher than keeping him. At Arkansas, he had a huge buyout in his contract that kept him from looking around. If he had not been fired for his off field behavior, he would still be there. If Kentucky can get him under a similar contract to what he had a Arkansas, I think he would stay for quite a while. He would only remain a hot commodity to big time schools if he started to win consistently at UK. However, if he did that, Kentucky would no longer be a bad job. We are already in the SEC which is the best conference. We're in the East division, so he would only have to face Alabama and LSU on occasion. Kentucky WILL pay a good coach top dollar, so he wouldn't need to leave for salary purposes. The only reason to jump ship to another college job would be due to recruiting base and/or administrative support.

As far as recruiting goes, if he started winning consistently he could pull all the best players from Kentucky and add in enough players from OH, IN, PA, VA, and all the SEC states to compete with anyone. A winning SEC team can recruit nationally. That includes Kentucky if we were a winning program.

As for administrative support, this is where I disagree with the assumption many people make. Kentucky is not a basketball state. We're a University of Kentucky state. I believe the sport of football is just as popular as basketball in Kentucky, we've just never had a team worth getting worked up over. If Petrino got Kentucky to the point of winning 9 or 10 games each year and going to New Year's bowl games or better there would be plenty of support. I was in Tampa when the Tim Couch team played down there on New Year's day. There were about 30-40,000 other Kentucky fans that made that trip. Kentucky fans want to support a winner and for years, football has failed to hire the correct person to get us there consistently. Give us a winner and football will get anything it needs. There are no pro teams in state to compete with for entertainment dollars. There is enough money to give Kentucky football and basketball all they need to compete at the top of college sports. Don't let the legislative road blocks fool you, they have never stopped Kentucky basketball from getting what is needed. We (KY citizens) would change who was in office before we would allow Kentucky basketball to be held back. I think the same would happen with football if we ever started to win consistently.

That leaves Petrino's off field bahavior as the remaining concern. I would expect that the situation at Arkansas would go a long way toward cleaning that up on its' own. There would always be the risk that a similar situation could happen at Kentucky making us the laughing stock of the SEC. Of course that wouldn't be a whole lot different than where we are right now. In this case, I think the risk is worth the potential reward. Like him or not, Petrino is one of the Top 5 coaches in the game right now. Kentucky football has blown several chances over the years that would have changed the course of our football program. We allowed the "Bear" to walk away. We didn't hire Schnellenberger any of the times that we should have. What will we do now? If Joker doesn't get this thing turned around this season, we need to do whatever it takes to bring in the best coach on the market.

Very good post. By far best of the day!

I think Petrino [puke] would be worth the risk because #1. He would win more games #2 He would bring in better recruits #3 He would have an exciting offense #4 He would fill the stadium and excite the fans #5 he would change the culture of FB at UK!

Even if he were here for just 4 years the culture change, better recruits, and winning attitude would have us set up nicely to be able to get another good coach and not have to reach for some nobody. I hate, hate, hate Bobby Petrino but if he were to be our next HC I'd ignore it all so long as we won more games and were not mocked as the cellar dweller of the SEC and college football.